Bruce Beutler

Bruce Beutler
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, 2021
Photograph by Brian Coats
Born (1957-12-29) December 29, 1957 (age 66)
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
Alma materUniversity of Chicago, University of California, San Diego
Spouse(s)Barbara Lanzl (c. 1980-1988; divorced; 3 children)
Awards2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Scientific career
FieldsImmunology
InstitutionsUniversity of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Bruce Alan Beutler (/ˈbɔɪtlər/ BOYT-lər; born December 29, 1957) is an American immunologist and geneticist. Together with Jules A. Hoffmann, he received one-half of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for "discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity."[1] Beutler discovered the long-elusive receptor for lipopolysaccharide (LPS; also known as endotoxin). He did so by identifying spontaneous mutations in the gene coding for mouse Toll-like receptor 4 (Tlr4) in two unrelated strains of LPS-refractory mice and proving they were responsible for that phenotype.[2] Subsequently, and chiefly through the work of Shizuo Akira, other TLRs were shown to detect signature molecules of most infectious microbes, in each case triggering an innate immune response.[3][4][5][6][7]

The other half of the Nobel Prize went to Ralph M. Steinman for "his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity."[1]

Beutler is currently a Regental Professor and Director of the Center for the Genetics of Host Defense at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas.[8][9]

  1. ^ a b "Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2011" (Press release). Nobel Foundation. October 3, 2011.
  2. ^ Poltorak, A.; He, X.; Smirnova, I.; Liu, M. Y.; Van Huffel, C.; Du, X.; Birdwell, D.; Alejos, E.; Silva, M.; Galanos, C.; Freudenberg, M.; Ricciardi-Castagnoli, P.; Layton, B.; Beutler, B. (December 11, 1998). "Defective LPS signaling in C3H/HeJ and C57BL/10ScCr mice: mutations in Tlr4 gene". Science. 282 (5396): 2085–2088. doi:10.1126/science.282.5396.2085. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 9851930.
  3. ^ Hemmi, Hiroaki; Kaisho, Tsuneyasu; Takeuchi, Osamu; Sato, Shintaro; Sanjo, Hideki; Hoshino, Katsuaki; Horiuchi, Takao; Tomizawa, Hideyuki; Takeda, Kiyoshi; Akira, Shizuo (January 22, 2002). "Small anti-viral compounds activate immune cells via the TLR7 MyD88-dependent signaling pathway". Nature Immunology. 3 (2): 196–200. doi:10.1038/ni758. ISSN 1529-2908. PMID 11812998. S2CID 1694900.
  4. ^ Hemmi, H.; Takeuchi, O.; Kawai, T.; Kaisho, T.; Sato, S.; Sanjo, H.; Matsumoto, M.; Hoshino, K.; Wagner, H.; Takeda, K.; Akira, S. (December 7, 2000). "A Toll-like receptor recognizes bacterial DNA". Nature. 408 (6813): 740–745. Bibcode:2000Natur.408..740H. doi:10.1038/35047123. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 11130078. S2CID 4405163.
  5. ^ Takeuchi, O.; Hoshino, K.; Kawai, T.; Sanjo, H.; Takada, H.; Ogawa, T.; Takeda, K.; Akira, S. (October 1, 1999). "Differential roles of TLR2 and TLR4 in recognition of gram-negative and gram-positive bacterial cell wall components". Immunity. 11 (4): 443–451. doi:10.1016/s1074-7613(00)80119-3. ISSN 1074-7613. PMID 10549626.
  6. ^ Takeuchi, O.; Kawai, T.; Mühlradt, P. F.; Morr, M.; Radolf, J. D.; Zychlinsky, A.; Takeda, K.; Akira, S. (July 1, 2001). "Discrimination of bacterial lipoproteins by Toll-like receptor 6". International Immunology. 13 (7): 933–940. doi:10.1093/intimm/13.7.933. ISSN 0953-8178. PMID 11431423.
  7. ^ Takeuchi, Osamu; Sato, Shintaro; Horiuchi, Takao; Hoshino, Katsuaki; Takeda, Kiyoshi; Dong, Zhongyun; Modlin, Robert L.; Akira, Shizuo (July 1, 2002). "Cutting edge: role of Toll-like receptor 1 in mediating immune response to microbial lipoproteins". Journal of Immunology. 169 (1): 10–14. doi:10.4049/jimmunol.169.1.10. ISSN 0022-1767. PMID 12077222. S2CID 22686400.
  8. ^ Ravindran, S. (2013). "Profile of Bruce A. Beutler". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 110 (32): 12857–8. Bibcode:2013PNAS..11012857R. doi:10.1073/pnas.1311624110. PMC 3740904. PMID 23858464.
  9. ^ "Center for the Genetics of Host Defense - UT Southwestern, Dallas, TX". Retrieved March 9, 2023.